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Buffett Calls Bitcoin a 'Gambling Device'
Warren Buffett told reporters at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, that he still couldn't support bitcoin.
By John Biggs
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 9:09 a.m. Published May 6, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
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Bitcoin got another bashing from the Sage of Omaha.
Warren Buffett told reporters at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, that he still couldn't support bitcoin.
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“It’s a gambling device ... there’s been a lot of frauds connected with it. There’s been disappearances, so there’s a lot lost on it. Bitcoin hasn’t produced anything,” he said. “It doesn’t do anything. It just sits there. It’s like a seashell or something, and that is not an investment to me."
Buffett also pointed to a button on his jacket and said that he could call it a token and charge $1,000 for it, wrote CNBC.
"What I’ll have here is a little token ... I’ll offer it to you for $1,000, and I’ll see if I can get the price up to $2,000 by the end of the day. ... But the button has one use and it’s a very limited use,” he said.
Buffett has previously stated that bitcoin is a "delusion" but that blockchain is ingenious. Last year he called it "rat poison squared" and said it was a nonproductive asset.
When asked at this month's meeting if he’d ever be involved in the technology, he replied: "I wouldn’t be the person to be a big leader in blockchain."
Warren Buffett image via Shutterstock
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